Four Letter Words - Life

Happy Mother's Day!

Everything I am I owe to My Mother....

Every thing I am I owe to my Mother. That is a pretty intense statement to make. I have thought a lot about this during the week and realized how true it is. The way I walk and talk, the way I look at the world, my name, all from my Mother. Lucky for me I happen to have a super Mom.

I would love to share, this day of honoring our Mother's, a little of my Mother with you. She was born in North Carolina but grew up in central Florida. The only child to two adoring parents. Talented as the day is long. She sang, acted, modeled, she was in all the school plays and was genuinely just a nice, thoughtful person. She was the apple of grandmother's eye. My mother was going to be and do all the things she hadn't been able to do.

Fortunately for all of us this was an easy task for my Mother. She was in the right place at the right time. Her true goodness shines through. Not only is my mother one of the most beautiful people you will ever meet she is beautiful through and through. I have never heard her say an ugly thing about anyone - ever. She is the first to give a person a second chance. I grew up with the mantra that until you walk in some one's shoes you really don't understand or know them. She taught me that every person carries a burden or two. You might not see their burdens, but they are there. So treat each person with respect, be kind, listen. Sometimes someone just needs another person to listen.

I have seen my Mother make a friend with everyone she meets. I do mean everyone. I have watched as she learns their life stories, then watched her go home and be sick with worry about something they have told her. Her kindness has been unending. The other night as I stopped by the liquor store for empty boxes I met an older gentleman who was collecting boxes. He asked me if I was moving. I asked him if he was, he then began his story... lived here 44 years, wife sick in nursing home in New York State, moving to be closer to daughter, hating to leave the beach, hating that his wife is sick...then he looked at me and said you really don't want to hear this, and I said "yes I do" and on he went. An hour later I was home. All night I thought of him hoping that he found some comfort in telling me his story and how much his story affected me. The next morning I realized - I am my Mother. I thought of how many times in my life I have seen my Mother take that extra bit of time to listen to some one else.

So, today I thank my Mother for her grace. Her ability to empathize, to understand, and see other people as they are. I thank her for her honesty and high moral ground. "Take the high road" you will never be sorry. A mantra I have lived with and practiced, thanks to my Mother, all my life. The best part is that she is right. When I take the high road I never have any regrets.

One of the things I have heard all my life is " Your Mother is sooo beautiful." One of my friends asked me if this was ever a problem. I was not really sure how to respond to that. Then, I thought the only problem was when I wanted to dress my teenage bell bottom way. Actually, having a Mother with style was pretty awesome. She always new all the latest cause she was modeling it. I remember the really cool clothes she had - and if I was lucky I could wear some of them. Even to this day one of the things we like to do together is clothes shop. My Mother can outfit you up in no time.

The other thing we like to do together - and with my dad - is antique. I will say my love of things with history came from my Mother. She is brilliant smart - uses ink to do the New York Times Crossword - and reads like no one's business. Growing up we were exposed to Museums, culture, plays, musicals, travel , etc. Going here and there we would stop at antique stores along the way. My brother chose to be unhappy about it. I chose to enjoy. I received quite a few history lessons from the store owners. I watched my parents fill their home with treasures and when it came time to have my own home I started in antique stores and flea markets.

Today I sit back and realize how big a part my Grandmother was of my Mother, my Mother is a huge part of who I am, and will I be a huge part of my boys? Unanswered questions... I do know that I am proud to be my Mother's Daughter. That she taught me well. The lessons life have taught me I have answered with honesty and grace that I learned from her. My love of art, history and life I have learned from her. My devotion to my family I learned from her love and the love she shares with my father. Thank you Mom.

Quote - Mother's

Reward's of Motherhood

My phone rung bright and early this morning. It was my oldest and his wife off to see a new part of the world with friends for a much needed vacation. As I struggled awake I heard " Mom I didn't want to leave without wishing you an early Happy Mother's Day. I felt like the father in "Father of the Bride" where she calls from the airport to say goodbye after being married. Here was my son in the airport doing the same thing. I realized after we hung up and I had told him "to have a great time, I loved them, be safe, and wash your hands" that we never stop being mothers...

So all morning I have been thinking about being a Mother, My Mother and her Mother...Lessons taught and lessons learned. How the biggest things turn into small things and small things can turn into big things.

All of my adult life I have been a Mother. I started early because "we wanted to be young enough to enjoy them, travel, and life when they grew up". Makes sense. One of the reward's of having five boys and sitting through endless baseball, basketball, football, lacrosse games, then off to wrestling and swimming meets is the ability to appreciate the whole picture. Not that I did not enjoy watching my kids in a variety of team settings, strutting their stuff, and the endless driving to and from, I will not even mention the laundry produced by all of this or the food needed to nourish their bodies. Being the only girl in a house full of boys and their friends can be rather hard. So when this little one came into our lives a whole new world opened. I can not even begin to explain the difference of girls and boys. It is there from the first breath.

I am so honored to be a Mother to five such wonderful men. All of the things I have learned about myself and seen through their eyes. Watching them struggle, work hard, and succeed as been an incredible experience. Thank you for giving me a life of joy and bringing such sunshine into my life. Thank you for marrying these incredible women and bringing this little one into our lives.

Freebies - Mother's Day Images #3 - Real Mothers

Look at his darling clothes and lace collar. I like the family album on the table.

The apple did not fall far from the tree here. This pioneer Mom looks tired.

Look at the huge bow in the daughter's hair and lovely lace on her dress.

Love love love this. This is new motherhood.

These two Mom's look so happy to be Moms. generations apart yet timeless.

Here are some real Mothers. Several of these pictures are of pioneer women and their children. These women spent long days alone except for their children. You can see the love they had for them in the clothes they wear, the small touch, the way they lean in to them or hold them. That universal Mom love. Where would the world be with out it?

One more Posterized Digital Collage

I took a piece of background paper and scanned it then added the image. Posterized a few times and here we are. I love these musicians with their red hair and flowing gowns.

Digital Collage - Portrait of a Girl

This is another example of posterization on PhotoShop. I took one of the Sophie Anderson freebie images and added a background paper and posterized the whole thing. I think it is very interesting.

Freebies - Mother's Day Images #2

I am a little getting these out a little late today. I was doing Mother things today. Waiting for the appliance repair man to make the third trip to fix my stove. Yes, I can self clean now! Making phone calls for other house related things. Looking for a birthday gift for youngest son, planning a cake, dinner and assorted birthday surprises.

When I went through my folders of images I decided that I should probably do several sets. These are the stylized version of Motherhood. Tomorrow will be actual Mothers and their children. Stay tuned.

Digital Collage - Background Paper

One of the Art technique groups on yahoo is having a digital thing where you are to play with the posterized part of your photoshop or paint program. I decided to use the background sheet freebie and do something. So here is my digital collage highly posterized. I really think certain things look better than others posterized. I am working on a couple others and you will see what I mean when I post those later.

p.s. diva is a word stamp from Inkastamps

The Art and Life of Sophie Anderson

The Turtle Dove

Sophie Gengembre Anderson was born in 1823 in France but grew up in Britain and is considered a British painter. Her father was an architect and appreciated her talent. She was a mostly self taught artist, but did take a few lessons at the Royal Academy where she met other Pre Raphaelite painters and poets. Her genre was women and children mostly in rural settings. Her botanical work was said to be some of the best of her day.

With the 1848 revolution her family moved to the United States, living in Ohio and Pennsylvania. There she met the American painter Walter Anderson. They married and moved back to London. Walter was a portrait painter and had a definite "style". They were great friends with Lewis Carroll - Alice in Wonderland.

I decide this week of Mother's Day that Sophie was most appropriate. Her paintings are full of hope and promise. Her women are strong yet women, her children are beautiful, yet children, worn socks and shoes and all. I love that she uses many of the people she came in contact with and their children as models. It is not the same face done over and over again. The hands in her paintings also have such life to them. I feel like they are waiting for me to be gone so they can move. I hope you will enjoy this week's selections.

Young girl fixing her hair.

A new friend.

Girl with Lilacs.
This painting hung over Lewis Carroll's fire place for years.

No walk today.

Portrait of a young girl.

Burned Out

Last week one of my girlfriends gave me my five minutes of "Whine and Wine time". I told her I was feeling just really burned out with EVERYTHING. Nothing in particular, just everything. She told me I needed to get out more, do more, quite whining and just do it. She would be in charge of a weekend of things to do that I would not have to think about. I could do that.

It was a great plan. The best thing is I do feel more relaxed. Ready to start the week again. I thought I would share one of the things we did. We went to a very small city auction house and mingled, ate great home cooking, met all sorts of interesting people, took lots of pictures, bought some interesting things, saw some incredible and not so incredible things, laughed - A LOT, and forgot who we were for a few days. I feel like my muse has been renourished.

I am going to put some phot0s in the next post. They are mostly of small things. Although there was a lot of cabinets, tables, chairs, and other assorted furniture, nothing that took my breath away. Hope you enjoy.

p.s. The chimney is from a house that the city was going to tear down and the fire fighters got to practice on.

A Night at the Auction House

Someone's jewelry box right off there dresser. The dresser and bed set were sold, also. I always feel a little teary eyed when I see stuff like this. Knowing everyone in the family has pawed through it all and taken what they wanted and this is what is left. This person wore and probably loved this stuff. When my grandmother passed, my Mother and Sister and I went through her things. My Sister was a teenager at the time and nothing was cool to her, but I could remember most of it and had loved it when she wore it and was honored to have some. We ended up keeping it all. I come from a long line of hoarders and nick knackers. One of my husbands use to kid me about how we still had room on the ceiling.
No auction or antique store is complete without old bottles. Where I live they are everywhere. There is a place on the river called the "bottle dump". It is on River Road. Imaginative isn't it. You can go and dig. I was talking to one guy at the auction who told me of several other sites along the river to go to "find" things. He was a native and seemed to know all the "places". Another day.
There was a whole table of games and different soaps and old advertising type things. It was interesting to see how much they were appreciated. I have always loved the graphics and fonts on these products. Everything seemed to be made with a little extra put into it. I wish some of these companies would take the time to put more style into their things.
All the men folk gathered around the hunting and fishing items. These lures were interesting. I have been finding a lot of these on the beach in the mornings. They are pretty wicked with those hooks. I have been thinking of a couple of art projects to do with them. If any one else has done something with them besides fish let me know - please.

A nice transfer ware wash set - minus the pitcher. The large basin, potty, a cup and soap holder. I resisted. This cream with brown is one of my favorites. I decided - although it went for a song, to hold out for something else. I figure I will always have the picture.
A pair of Raggedy Ann dolls. They were very well loved. It tickled me to death to see all the women at the auction mosey over to check them out at some point during the evening. They were sold to a very sweet silver head lady with no grand children who just wanted the memories. How sweet is that?

A tray of flower frogs. These were really cool. I think they were some ones collection or else they did a lot of flower arrangements. I am fortunate to have quite a few of my grandmother's. She did the flowers for the church every Wednesday and Thursday. Some times it was the Baptist church sometimes it was the Methodist church. She didn't like to do the Catholic church. I think the candles and holy water made her nervous. She asked me why they had to have that poor suffering man upfront in their church. It just depended on who had sweet talked her for the year to do their flowers. She was always mad at one or the other. Most of her flowers came right out of her garden. She was known to do flowers for weddings and luncheons. I would sit in awe of her creations. I still am not very good at flower arranging. I love fresh flowers though.

Knitting needles and a old tobacco tin. Very North Carolina. We use to have so many mills and factories that produced yarn and lace, all types of material. Now slowly most of them have been closed and moved to other sites. The up side is that a lot of these mills have been turned into condos, lofts, and studios.

So these were just some of the sights and sounds of an evening at the auction house. i am told they have an auction every weekend in May. Hmm I love the pie at this place....

Motherly Advice - Quote

Digital Collage #20 - The Power of You

I spent part of the morning blog hopping and found these images from Spark Your Imagination - Debrina Pratt's blog Whimsical World of Fairies. The background is two images, the girl and butterfly is also from there. The stamps are from Stamper's Anonymous and the bird is from a children's book illustration. This was very quick and easy, also lot's of fun.

Freebies - Mother's Day Images

A gentle kiss.

A much needed hug.

Helping with the latest fashion.

An afternoon at the shore.

Self image is good.

A hug, a song, feeling safe.

With Mother's Day less than a week away I thought I would spend part of this week honoring Mother's. Without them we would be no where. They literally form us. Their tender touch, a hug, a brush away the tears means the world to a child. There gentle guidance through life's pot holes makes us better people. These images are for your artwork. Enjoy.

Four Letter Words - Nest

Happy May Day!

by Kate Greenaway

A Little May Day Poster

Digital Collage #19 - Fun Times

This is a combination collage. I found all these images as freebies on other peoples blogs or websites, except for Michelle Ward's crow stamp and a dinosaur stamp from I can't remember where. The main images of the two boys is from Tristan's blog - Enchanted Revelry. Some of my boys were getting together here for a few days and this just reminded me of them. Always laughing, joking, getting all dirty and sweaty playing ball. I rarely use boys in my collages I realized when I was doing this one. I am not sure why that is. So here is a boy - a manly collage.

Background paper

From my work table to yours!